Flette, Oil Kings blank Blazers

From The Daily News of Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008 . . .

The Edmonton Oil Kings arrived in Kamloops on Thursday, having lost four
straight and 15 of their last 19 games. They had scored just one goal in
their previous four games.
But, then, WHL expansion teams are supposed to be punching bags, aren’t
they?
Except that no one told the Kamloops Blazers.
The Oil Kings, backstopped by former Kamloops goaltender Dalyn Flette,
scored two goals on early turnovers, outshot the home side 14-3 over the
first 20 minutes and went on to beat the Blazers 4-0 in front of an
announced crowd of 4,647 mostly disgruntled fans at Interior Savings Centre
on Friday night.
The Blazers were booed off the ice following the first period, one fan
bellowing: “Wake up!”
They didn’t.
It was a performance that can best be described as (a) lethargic, (b)
lackadaisical, (c) disinterested, or (d) all of the above.
“That’s the worst performance I’ve seen from an opponent all season, poor
Portland included,” one member of the Oil Kings’ traveling party was heard
to say. The Winter Hawks, the WHL’s poorest team, are 9-49-1-1 and have lost
15 in a row.
Indeed, it was impossible to find anything positive in the Blazers’
performance, one that came against a team that is 19-29-46. It also came on
the first day of parent’s weekend, with majority owner Tom Gaglardi in the
house and with the Vancouver Giants, who are 38-13-2-5, in The ATM tonight.
“The game was pretty clear on what happened,” Kamloops interim head coach
Greg Hawgood said. “I think we thought it was going to be easy and we just
aren’t good enough for that to take place.”
Before this game was 11 minutes old, Edmonton held a 7-0 edge in shots and
was ahead 2-0, goals by right-wingers Tomas Vincour and Craig McCallum both
coming off big, fat turnovers in the Kamloops zone.
“That’s a part of our game that we talk about on a daily basis,” Hawgood
said. “For us to be successful, (turnovers) have to be to a minimum.”
That wasn’t the case last night.
By the end of the first period, the Oil Kings had outshot the home boys
14-3, an edge that was 32-23 at game’s end.
“It’s always a good thing to get (to play) back where your career started,”
offered Edmonton goaltender Dalyn Flette, who was traded by the Blazers for
right-winger Kenton Dulle in June. “It was great. It wasn’t an overly
business night. There were a few good scoring chances but our team played
great. The defence was awesome and kept things to the outside.
“Even on the power play, (Kamloops) didn’t get much going.”
Centre Brenden Dowd, who went from the Blazers to Edmonton in last summer’s
expansion draft, upped the lead to 3-0 with his 12th goal in the second
period and Vincour put it away with his second of the night and 16th of the
season early in the third.
“It went pretty well, actually, for me and Fletter,” Dowd said. “I scored
and he got the shutout . . . you can’t complain about that.”
The complaints were all coming out of the other dressing room.
“We have to be ready to battle no matter who we’re playing,” said Kamloops
captain Scott Wasden. “If we don’t come ready to play . . . it’s just going
to get tougher from here and we have to be ready.
“We just didn’t come out. We weren’t hungry. It’s not acceptable. We have to
be ready every night. We had a week off from games so we had a whole week to
prepare for this one.”
Hawgood, choosing his words carefully, wouldn’t admit to being frustrated.
“I don’t want to show frustration becaused I don’t think it’s going to help
them,” he said. “We want to improve every day. We want to make sure we
believe in the system . . . when it’s executed and done properly, we play
well. When it isn’t, we obviously don’t.”
Their next test comes tonight against Don Hay and his Giants.
JUST NOTES: Referee Matt Kirk, who has quickly become one of the WHL’s most
competetent whistle-blowers, gave the Blazers seven of 10 minors. . . .
Edmonton was 2-for-7 on the power play; the Blazers were 0-for-3. . . .
Kamloops G Justin Leclerc stopped 28 shots. . . . The shutout was Edmonton’s
third of the season — veteran G Alex Archibald has the other two — while the
Blazers’ have been blanked twice. . . . Kamloops LW Ivan Rohac did time on
the bench after a second-period turnover in his zone, while D Nick Ross met
the pine to start the third period after he took a double minor
(cross-checking and unsportsmanlike conduct) late in the second.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca